The Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, arrives today in London in the early afternoon for a two-day visit to the United Kingdom. The first appointment on the agenda is at 15 pm for a meeting with British Prime Minister Rushi Sunak in Downing Street. This is the second bilateral talks after the one held in November on the sidelines of the COP27 in Egypt, when both had become heads of government a few days ago.

Tomorrow, however, the Prime Minister will participate, at the Italian embassy, in the conclusions of a workshop on agri-food together with the Minister of Agriculture Francesco Lollobrigida. The reception will be an opportunity to meet representatives of the UK government as well as the financial and business community.

The visit of 27-28 April "crowns the excellent state of the bilateral relationship between the two countries and relaunches the all-round strategic dialogue with a key partner and ally. This is Prime Minister Meloni's first two-day visit to a European country, a sign of the importance that the Italian government attaches to relations with the United Kingdom".

Even after Brexit, economic collaboration with the United Kingdom remains "solid and diversified, with strong industrial complementarities and broad growth prospects: 35.6 billion in trade in 2022 (+13% on 2021 and in line with pre-covid data), with a positive balance of 19 billion euros". And the UK remains an important investor in Italy, with foreign direct investments of 26 billion euros concentrated in the financial, insurance and energy sectors. On the other hand, there is a deep-rooted Italian entrepreneurial presence in the United Kingdom, with investments of 31.8 billion especially in the defense sector (Leonardo), energy and renewables (Eni, Enel) and infrastructure and transport. According to the government, "there is room for further intensification of exchanges, especially in the most innovative sectors such as the 'green' economy, advanced technologies, life sciences, start-ups and digital innovation.

The defense sector is at the center of Italy-UK industrial collaboration: "Italy is fully committed to the development of the GCAP/Tempest program, a trilateral ITA-UK-JAP initiative, of strategic importance, for the design of the VI generation multirole fighter". Finally, on the conflict in Ukraine, yesterday's Italian-Ukrainian Conference for Reconstruction in Rome and the upcoming International Conference for Reconstruction in London (21-22 June) "confirm the role of Italy and the UK in supporting Kiev".